In wireless communication networks, multiple-input and multiple-output (“MIMO”) operations are methods for multiplying the capacity of a radio link through the use of multiple transmit and receive antennas. MIMO technology has been incorporated into wireless broadband standards such as the third generation partnership project (“3GPP”) standards (e.g., 4G-Long Term Evolution (“LTE”) networks) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (“IEEE”) wireless technologies. By exploiting multipath propagation, MIMO communications utilizes more antennas per transmitter/receiver to allow for both a greater number of possible signal paths and improved performance in terms of data rate and link reliability. However, the downside of MIMO-based communications includes increased complexity of the hardware and the complexity as well as the energy consumption of the signal processing at both ends of a transmission.
Massive MIMO, or large-scale MIMO, refers to techniques using a very large number (e.g., hundreds or thousands) of transmit and receive antennas. Accordingly, massive MIMO makes improvements over current practice through the use of these numerous antennas that are operated coherently and adaptively. Extra antennas help by focusing the transmission and reception of signal energy into ever-smaller regions of space. This can bring significant improvements in throughput and reductions in required transmit power, particularly when combined with simultaneous scheduling of a large number of user terminals (e.g., tens or hundreds). Massive MIMO networks can also significantly increase the signal strength at a mobile device, or user equipment (“UE”), even if only the serving node, or enhanced Node B (“eNB”), has the large number of antennas. However, it is important to note that conventional usage of massive MIMO communications is based on single frequency networks. Furthermore, while massive MIMO reduces required transmit power, conventional MIMO (i.e., not massive MIMO) requires more energy consumed at the UE due to multiple radio frequency (“RF”) chains and complex signal processing.
While benefits of massive MIMO include the extensive use of inexpensive low-power components, reduced latency and simplification of the media access control (“MAC”) layer, there are limitations to the current operations. For instance, in conventional methods for managing interference between different cells in a network, the eNB coordinates the transmissions of UEs at the cell edge. These coordinated transmissions direct the UEs to use a specific part of the frequency spectrum band. However, these communications can necessitate a great deal of overhead and power consumption in order to distribute the management information throughout the network. Accordingly, a more efficient system and method are needed for interference management in massive MIMO communication systems.